Coordinative Real-time Sub-Transmission Volt-VAr Control for Reactive Power Regulation between Transmission and Distribution Systems

Journal Article · Tue Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · IET Generation, Transmission and Distribution

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-gtd.2018.5850· OSTI ID:1567256

Ke, Xinda ^[1]; Samaan, Nader A.  ^[1]; Holzer, Jesse T. ^[1]; Huang, Renke ^[1]; Vyakaranam, Bharat GNVSR ^[1]; Vallem, Mallikarjuna R. ^[1]; Elizondo, Marcelo A. ^[1]; Lu, Ning ^[2]; Zhu, Xiangqi ^[2]; Werts, Brant ^[3]; Nguyen, Quan ^[4]; Huang, Alex ^[5]; Makarov, Yuri V. ^[1]

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1. BATTELLE (PACIFIC NW LAB)
2. North Carolina State University
3. Duke Energy
4. University of Texas
5. University of Texas at Austin

This paper introduces an integrated voltage regulation approach to coordinate the Volt-VAr control between transmission and distribution systems. Distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems are aggregated as a virtual power plant (VPP). At the sub-transmission level, a Coordinated Real-time Sub-Transmission Volt-VAr Control Tool (CReST-VCT) is introduced to coordinate the operation of the shunt devices and the reactive power provided by the VPPs. The CReST-VCT uses an enhanced Volt-VAr control algorithm with weighted voltage control objects that include minimizing losses, maintaining the voltage within desirable levels, and minimizing the number of mechanical switching of shunt elements. The algorithm runs every 5 minutes and is solved using AC optimal power flow (OPF) solution technique. The outputs include the settings for each sub-transmission-level Volt-VAr control devices and the reactive power generation requirements for each VPP. Then, each VPP will run a distribution Volt-VAr control algorithm to select the PV inverters that provide the Volt-VAr control services considering the distribution network topology. The goal of the VPP reactive power control is to meet the transmission level service requirements while maintaining the voltage and line flow in the distribution system within limits. Each VPP will update its voltage regulation capacity every 5 minutes to allow the CReST-VCT to formulate the optimization problem for the next dispatch interval. The proposed tool is simulated on Duke Energy Carolina system to demonstrate the capability of providing voltage support service by dispatching of reactive power of distributed PV as VPP.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1567256
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-135462
• Journal Information: IET Generation, Transmission and Distribution, Vol. 13, Issue 11
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English